I spent a wonderful day working with teachers and other interested students last weekend at a pop-up class sponsored by the Art Educators of New Jersey South. The class was held at Gloucester County College in Sewell, NJ., and 22 students left with lots of ideas for using pop-ups both in their own work and with kids in the classroom. Thanks to Diane Driessen for organizing the workshop!

Being “down under” doesn’t mean paper doesn’t pop! Seventeen members of the Victoria Bookbinder’s Group proved it in a weekend paper engineering class held at Melbourne’s Polytechnic campus. The class covered simple fold-and-cut pop-ups along with platforms, props, and V-folds. Pop-up collector Corrie Allegro also made an appearance and stayed for my slide lecture on pop-up book history. Thanks, Anne Newton, for making the arrangements for this class.

The Geelong Fibers Forum ended with a fabulous costume party. The theme was “The Wizard of Odd” and partygoers dressed accordingly. Here are photos of a few of the imaginative characters in attendance. Thanks to everyone who made this conference such a great success! 

The Geelong Forum is a major conference of Fibers and Textile artists which takes place every year at the Geelong Grammar School in Australia. Approximately 300 artists, craftspersons, and vendors attend. This year I offered a sculptural book class at the conference and had seventeen enthusiastic students in the class. They created some wonderful books and pop-ups over the course of the  past week, and we had a great time sharing ideas and seeing examples of work by everyone who participated.

A week-long class in Lanceston, Tasmania, yielded a slew of wonderful pop-up, carousel, and tunnel books. My eleven students worked day and night to produce the work shown here. I’m so happy with the results of the class that I’ve added images of the finished books to my ongoing slide lecture series. Thanks everyone who participated!

Arriving in the city of Launceston in Tasmania, I was greeted by Helen Statham at the airport and escorted to their home for my first Tasmanian cup of tea. Helen and her husband Mick are agricultural scientists working on studies of Tasmanian Devils, Wallabies, and other native marsupials to find how they affect agricultural production in the state. While staying with them I learned more about these incredible animals and went to see several in the their study area and at the local wildlife reserve. We also did a hike into the Lanceston gorge and over the weekend took a longer trip out to see some of the surrounding countryside. Helen and Mick have a wealth of knowledge on the local flora and fauna, which I greatly appreciated along with their hospitality.

I was honored when the British Society of Bookbinders invited me to be a presenter at their 2009 conference in Warwick, England, and even more pleased to learn how many friends would be attending. Arriving at Manchester Airport, I was picked up by my colleague, fellow paper engineer and teacher Paul Johnson and whisked off to a historic site nearby, Little Moreton Hall, a beautiful timber framed structure not changed from the 16th century.

I stayed with his family that evening, and the next day we drove to the conference for three days filled with demonstrations and talks on books, bookbinding, conservation, and (of course) pop-ups. The conference ended with a very successful dinner and auction to help support the Society.

From there, ten of us headed north to Dominque Riley and Michael Burke’s home in the Lake District near Ulverston. What a treat! We spent a day and a half exploring the environs, visiting pubs, a tannery, gardens, and a bobbin mill.

That evening was a party, with slide presentations and a pot luck dinner. Bookbiners David Sellars, Don Glaister, Yehuda Miklaf, Michael Burke, and Dominique Riley here look over a display of their bindings.

It was the perfect trip: a combination of work, play, travel, and meeting up with many old and new friends.

Over the course of an exciting week at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg , Tennessee, students in my sculptural book class created numerous pop-up cards along with a carousel book and a tunnel book.

Arrowmont is a creative oasis nestled within the Smoky Mountains. Along with my class, sessions were held in woodturning, jewelry, drawing, basket weaving, printmaking, ceramics, fabric design, and glass. The entire faculty and student body gathers at meals and in the evenings to share experiences and gain inspiration from each other. It’s a great environment in which to expand the boundaries of one’s creative experience.

Bear painting by Thaddeus Erdahl, artist-in-residence

Several students also sighted some local residents in the form of a mamma bear and her two cubs.

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Designed by General Montgomery Meigs as the Pension Building and built between 1881 and 1887, its eight enormous interior columns are among the tallest in the world. Today the museum features exhibitions on architecture, city planning, and design. So what better place to hold a kids’ class on building pop-ups?

My two-day session was part of a six-week program of kids’ camps at the museum. Twelve young designers and paper engineers participated. The first day we designed books around the themes of family and home. Pop-ups featured drawings of friends, parents, siblings, pets, and room interiors. The next day we concentrated on neighborhoods. After drawing a map of their neighborhood, each child did pop-ups of their house, their school, and their favorite place to eat. As you can see from the results, the class was full of ideas and lots of creative energy.

Teaching week-long classes is gratifying for me because I get to see more developed projects than those created in one- or two-day workshops. This past week I taught a class in paper engineering to an enthusiastic group of seven students at Wells College Book Arts Summer Institute in Aurora, New York. Set on Lake Cayuga, one of New York State’s finger lakes, the beautiful campus is an idyllic setting for a concentrated session of classes.  Along with my class, the week included a letterpress class taught by Steve Miller, director of the MFA book arts program at the University of Alabama, and  a decorated letter class taught by noted calligrapher Nancy Culmone from northern New Mexico. Here are a few photos from those classes:

One of the highlights of the week was a visit to Michael Bixler’s letterpress and typecasting studio in nearby Skaneateles, NY. Students and teachers spent the evening watching Michael cast a beautiful border type (everyone got some to take home) and enjoying a picnic meal.

Not everything at the institute was focused on books, letters, and printing. Meals were another important part of the day, served in the Harry Potter-style dining hall at the college. Other activities included swimming, fireworks, bubble-blowing, and block throwing. It was a memorable week….